Bab 174: The Second Worst Superpower #174
Lying on the ground, Sage instinctively raised his arms to cover his vitals as Man-Bat stood over him, prepared to strike him down with a swift swing of his sharp claws.
"DIE!" Bellowed the enraged Man-Bat as he raised his arm and brought it down, only for him and Sage to freeze as a blur appeared out of nowhere, getting in his way and grabbing the former's wrist.
"I told you you'd be throwing yourself into certain death," The newcomer, Grayson, as he briefly turned to give Sage a mocking glance behind his shoulders.
Before Sage or Man-Bat could process the situation, Grayson shoved the latter back and stepped forward, forcefully clapping his hands in front of the humanoid bat's face, creating a loud noise that shocked his sensitive ears.
"Super hearing, the worse superpower anyone could have..." Grayson calmly said as he watched Man-Bat fall to his knees, grunting in agony as he held his ears.
"Not only does it make you vulnerable to loud noise..." Grayson went on as he circled Man-Bat, curiously inspecting him as if to study how the loud noise affected the latter.
"But you might overhear many things you were not supposed to because of it..." he continued, waiting for Man-Bat to recover before clapping again next to his right ear, causing him to keel to the other side, writhing in pain.
"It has its uses and might make you invulnerable to sneak attacks..." Grayson added as he kneeled next to the suffering humanoid bat, shaking his head.
"But it would only work if you were calm and had the brain power to process all the surrounding sounds..." Gray went on as he balled his hand into a fist and struck Man-Bat in the back of his head.
"Even Superman suffers from time to time because of it," he concluded as he got up, turning away from Man-Bat, who was slowly reverting to his human, and back to The Question.
"Batman would know that," Gray concluded as he mockingly looked down on Sage, who was still lying on the ground, causing the latter to snort as he stood up with a flip.
"It takes a freak to know freaks," Sage blankly said, dusting his trench coat and adjusting his fedora as he got up, seemingly unfazed by Grayson's mocking words.
"Thanks for the compliment, I guess," Grayson replied, letting out a chuckle as he began binding Man-Bat, who was already back in his human form.
"You still wanna keep going...? I won't stop you, you know...?" Grayson asked, raising an eyebrow as he called one of his machines and loaded Man-Bat on its back.
"No. I've had enough dealing with freaks for one day," Sage said, scoffing as he turned away from Grayson and made for the exit without waiting for a reply, which came nonetheless.
"Gotham is not the city for you, then. Dealing with freaks is the name of the game here," Grayson said, letting out a light laugh as he turned away from Sage and made to go deeper into the asylum instead.
...
"Well... now I know he isn't suicidal, at least," I mused, shaking my head as I watched Victor Sage leave the asylum and exchange a few words with detective Montoya before disappearing.
Even if The Question was an asshole, I couldn't let him die under my watch since he was Richard's student, so I had to save his sorry behind before Man-Bat proceeded to shred it to pieces.
Speaking of the crazy humanoid bat, he was one of the stronger Batman villains and someone I somewhat sympathized with because he wasn't really crazy or evil, for that matter.
His name was Robert Langstrom if I recall correctly. And as far as I remember, he got into a bat-related incident during his childhood, like Bruce Wayne did.
Except he grew to like bats because of it, unlike the latter. So much so that he studied zoology and specialized in nocturnal creatures to become a bat scientist or some shit.
Because he liked superheroes and wanted to imitate them, Robert created a special serum extracted from, and I shit you not, actual bat glands that was supposed to enhance his sensory capabilities.
Sound familiar? As it should. He was basically DC writers' cheap attempt to copy The Lizard from and that vampire guy who would occasionally show up and fight Spider-Man because he'd be horny for MJ or something along those lines.
In any case, like any self-respecting comic book scientist, Robert gulped the serum on the spot. It showed immediate results, temporarily turning him into a half-man-half-bat hybrid, hence the name; Man-Bat. Pretty creative, right?
First, it was all fine and dandy; Robert was in perfect control of his actions and powers. He used the latter to fight crime and even teamed up with Batman to beat up some unfortunate group of unsuspecting thugs.
And as comic book logic dictates, that's when things take a turn for the worst, and guess what; they did. In good spirit, and uncharacteristically so, Batman thanked Robert for his help and praised his costume.
Can you imagine it; Batman being a decent human being and thanking some stranger he'd never met who's fighting crime in Gotham without being an asshole and questioning his motives? No? Neither can I.
The lazy writing aside, In an unsurprising turn of events, Robert didn't take the praise well and became self-conscious of his appearance when he turned into a humanoid bat.
Because of that, his animal instinct slowly began taking over his mind whenever he turned into Man-Bat, slowly changing him into what he was today. And that, boys and girls, was the start of his villain origin story.
Really takes "Learn to take a compliment" to a whole new level, doesn't it?
As I was saying, Robert wasn't some evil psycho, and he was working on a cure to get back in control, which he might never achieve because comic book logic is a bitch.
But enough of The Lizard's cheap knock-off. I've got an asylum full of lunatics I needed to clear. My machines had already cleared the outer area, but the deeper they went, the more resistance they faced and the longer they took to advance.
As fun as staring at the asylum's gate while standing there, rooted in place like a statue and controlling tens of machines to kick some villain hiney for hours would be, I had places to be and shit to do.
I was still fully intent on not walking into traps and would use my machines to scout ahead and stop that from happening, but I had to step in to speed up the process.
...
"Now, here's a face I didn't want to see ever again..." I muttered as I watched a man squatting in the corner of the hallway leading to staff quarters.
The man had a blank face as he lit up matchstick after matchstick, his expression growing gleeful, then horrified as the fire ignited and then dissipated.
It was a pathetic sight, and as much as I hated the man, I couldn't help but turn away from it with a wince. "Fear Toxin... I'm glad I have my riot gear..." I muttered as I took a deep breath and approached the man.
I made sure my footsteps could be heard, and he immediately noticed my presence, giving me a fearful look as he raised the burning matchstick and waved it in my direction.
"Stay away, monster! The fire will protect me!" the man said as he rapidly waved the matchstick, causing the fire to dissipate, much to his shock and horror.
"No... stay away...!" he exclaimed as he dropped the matchbox by mistake, fumbling to pick one of the sticks, to which I could say nothing as I closed the distance and knocked him out.
A part of me wanted to enjoy the man's suffering, to stand by and mock him, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. The poor bastard had likely been inhaling Fear Toxin for days now, and there was nothing I or anyone could do to him that he didn't experience already via hallucinations.
It was only at times like these, when I witnessed the random shit anyone in Gotham could go through at any time, that I would realize how lucky I was when I first got here.
I had my own challenges and faced my own demons, but at least I didn't have to suffer through the mental torture brought to you by your friendly neighborhood Scarecrow, so that's still something to be thankful for, I guess.
"Whelp... Scarecrow just earned himself a spot on my kill or cripple on sight list..."
...
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